Ecommerce giant Amazon and Future Group have agreed to initiate a dialogue to resolve the 18-month-old legal dispute.
During a hearing in the Supreme Court today, Amazon India’s senior counsel Gopal Subramanium, proposed that the parties hold informal talks without mediators in order to arrive at an amicable solution to put the multifarious legal dispute to rest.
“Throughout we have always been willing to have a dialogue, a conversation. There can be other resolutions to a matter. Is it not a whirlpool? Facing one statutory authority barely because we went through an arbitration. Let us put our hands together and find a solution,” he said striking a concilatory tone.
The court bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana was hearing Amazon’s appeal against the Delhi High Court staying arbitration proceedings between the ecommerce giant and Future group.
After Amazon’s proposal to begin talks with Future Retail, Reliance to resolve the legal dispute, senior advocate Harish Salve, representing the Future Retail, said” “Amazon gods will have to come down to talk to us mortals.”
Salve said if Amazon wants to have a conversation, what is preventing its boss from calling up Biyanis (Future Group Chairman Kishore Biyani)? Salve emphasized that in this legal battle nobody is winning.
Justice Bopanna said that “instead of saying they should pick up the phone and call, why don’t you facilitate that to happen?”
Salve said he has no issues with it. Salve added that in this legal dispute three large business houses are involved and they can sit together and have a conversation
The Supreme Court welcomed these discussions and has given both parties until March 15 to reach a possible solution through negotiations. The Chief Justice said: “It is better to resolve this amicably.”
Kishore Biyani and 15 others including FRL and FCPL have been embroiled in a series of litigations with Amazon, an investor in FCPL, over the deal with Reliance. Following the EA, subsequently, a three-member arbitral tribunal was constituted to decide the issues arising from the deal.
